Melanie a Smith – författare

She safeguarded her heart for a reason...Real estate entrepreneur Serafina Evans chances her guarded heart to be with her handsome and charming Italian client, but things take a turn when she finds out her company is being sabotaged and her paramour isn't what he seems. Will her gamble on a mercurial relationship pay off, or will it leave her hurt and closed off from love forever? And will she find out who's sabotaging her in time to save the company she's worked so hard to build?Note: Books One through Three in this series are meant to be read in order.

The time has come to decide: it's all or nothing… Sera went looking for an answer. What she gets is Alessandro Giordano telling her to go home. No explanation, no apology — just a closed door and a man who won't meet her eyes. The same man who is finally, at long last, free. What she doesn't know is that someone has been watching him. That the last time she underestimated a threat, it nearly killed her. And that Alessandro would rather she hate him than bury her. So Sera goes back to Seattle. To a company that isn't hers anymore, and a friend who never left. Bryce Hoyt has stood beside her through every worst moment of the past year. He's steady where Alessandro was volatile, here where Alessandro is gone, and honest about what he wants in a way that frightens her more than the silence ever did. Then his father dies, and the careful distance they've both been keeping stops holding. And whoever set out to destroy Sera's company isn't finished with her yet. Sera has spent her life handing people the pieces of herself she could stand to lose. Both of these men want all of it. All of Me continues Sera's story, which concludes in Never Forget.

She thought the worst was behind her… Sera has everything she never let herself want. Bryce at her side, a life that finally feels like hers, a future she can picture without flinching. Three months ago a woman with a grudge pulled a gun on her in an elevator. Sera survived that. She's decided it means the danger is over. It isn't. The people who ruined Alessandro Giordano's family have run out of money and patience, and they've worked out that the fastest route to him runs through her. They've stopped being subtle. They come in daylight, in parking lots, in elevators, and they don't much care who's standing beside her when they do. Then Alessandro comes back. Not the man she loved — what's left of him. Sera spent a decade certain she could survive anything as long as she needed no one. The past year has been one long argument against that. Now the people she finally let in are the ones standing in the line of fire. Some things you survive. Some things you never forget. Never Forget is the conclusion of Sera's story.

The Safeguarded Heart Series may be romantic suspense fiction, but the author's love for food as showcased throughout the books is very real. More specifically, Italian food. In this companion guide, you'll learn a bit about Smith's family and history that brought about her love for cooking and Italian cuisine, as well as the recipes featured in the books and more. With both authentic and Americanized Italian dishes, as well as a few other favorites, Smith moves to providing inspiration in the kitchen. Mangiamo (let's eat)!

Foul-mouthed and sexy as sin, this bad boy is about to turn her entire world upside down… I'm Frankie Greco. Since I can remember, a little voice inside my head has whispered to me whenever I hear lies. To distract myself, I focus on my career. I recently bought out what used to be one of the hottest nightclubs in Los Angeles, so it's not hard. There are few people I let in, and only they know my secret. But romantic relationships never last long.That is, until I met Julian. I don't know if it was the instant, primal attraction, but I couldn't get a read on this guy to save my life. And I definitely wasn't prepared for what letting him in would start; the pieces of my past that would come back to haunt me. I didn't think it was possible to surprise a girl who can spot a lie a mile away. I couldn't have been more wrong.

A forbidden affair that's practically irresistible... Everyone calls Emily Hoyt a free spirit. She's aware that's the polite word for flake. Twenty-eight, no career to speak of, no plan, and now her perfect older brother has gone and gotten engaged — which somehow makes all of it louder. Then she answers the door at his engagement party, and Alessandro Giordano is standing on the step. He's the most beautiful man she has ever seen. He's ten years older than her. And he's the lying, cheating Italian who broke her future sister-in-law's heart — the one man on earth her brother truly hates. Forty-eight hours later, Emily is on a plane to Naples with him. It's supposed to be an escape. Someone else's country, someone else's language, nobody at home any the wiser. But Alessandro turns out to be nothing like the selfish ass she had him pegged as, and the further she gets from Seattle, the harder it is to remember why this was only ever meant to be temporary. The problem isn't that Emily's falling for him. It's that she still hasn't told anyone. Note: Though this is the fourth book in the series, it can be read as a standalone.

Four books. One woman who learned early never to need anyone. And ten years of finding out what that cost her. Serafina Evans built a company from nothing and a life with no room in it for anybody else. It takes a saboteur inside her own walls, a man who lies to her, and a threat that follows her home to change her mind — and by then, changing it may be the most dangerous thing she's ever done. The Safeguarded HeartSera has kept her heart locked away since she was nineteen. Then an Italian client walks into her conference room, and after weeks of fighting him on everything, she does something she hasn't done in her adult life: she lets her guard down. Alessandro Giordano has a wife. Who lives less than twenty minutes away. And while her personal life comes apart, someone is quietly dismantling her company from the inside. A theft becomes a tampered report, which becomes a lost client … and then something far worse than sabotage. All of MeSera goes looking for an answer. What she gets is Alessandro telling her to go home — no explanation, no apology. What she doesn't know is that someone has been watching him, and that Alessandro would rather she hate him than bury her. And back in Seattle, there's a man who has never once left her side. Bryce Hoyt is steady where Alessandro was volatile, here where Alessandro is gone, and honest about what he wants in a way that frightens her more than the silence ever did. Then his father dies, and the careful distance they've both been keeping stops holding. Never ForgetFor the first time, Sera has everything she never let herself want. Then the people who destroyed Alessandro's family work out that the fastest route to him runs straight through her, and they stop being subtle about it. They come in daylight, in parking lots, in elevators, and they don't much care who's standing beside her when they do. Now the people she finally let in are the ones standing in the line of fire. Her Dirty SecretEmily Hoyt is twenty-eight, aimless, and answering the door at her brother's engagement party when she finds the one man on earth he truly hates standing on the step. Forty-eight hours later she's on a plane to Naples with him. The problem isn't that Emily's falling for him. It's that she still hasn't told anyone. Exclusive bonus noveletteTwelve years on, Sera and Bryce's daughter falls for Alessandro's nephew — and finds out how much of the old feud was ever really buried. Available nowhere else. Recipes from the HeartThe Italian cooking that runs through all four books, with the family history behind it and recipes from the series. All five books, plus the exclusive bonus novelette.

Money can't buy happiness, but neither can pride… Julianna Magnusson has given sixteen years to Rutherford Hospital. She all but runs the cardiac unit while working as a nurse practitioner, sits on the hospital's budget committee in her boss's place, and has spent years watching administration cut staff and equipment to the bone while congratulating itself in press releases. She'd have walked long ago. But her father has Alzheimer's, her mother has dementia, and Jules is the one paying for their care. So when she's ordered to attend the Rutherford Group's annual gala — black tie, open bar, all proceeds to Alzheimer's research — she does the only reasonable thing. She drinks five glasses of very good wine and starts across the ballroom to tell the owner precisely what she thinks of him. She doesn't make it. A stranger steps into her path, and instead of stopping her, he lets her get it all off her chest. Every failure. Every cut. Every injustice. And then he takes her back to his hotel room and takes her mind off all of it. Monday morning, he's standing at the front of the staff meeting. Noah Rutherford. The owner's son and the Rutherford Group's Director of Operations, sent to restructure the hospital. Armed with every piece of information she gave him. He's arrogant, immaculate, and far too sure of himself. He's also the only person in the building with the power to fix what's broken … or finish breaking it. Now Jules has to decide how much of her pride she's willing to swallow to save the hospital — and whether she can do it without losing her heart in the process.

Some rules are made to be broken… Sasha Suvorin has one rule: never date a doctor.  It's not a hard rule to keep. She's a cardiac nurse pulling twelve-hour shifts at Rutherford and finishing her nurse practitioner degree on what little energy she has left over. Her love life is a running joke between her and her best friend, Becca, and honestly, she's made peace with that. Then Dr. Caleb Thompson transfers in. British. Surgeon. Tall, dark, and unfairly blue-eyed, which is to say precisely her type — a fact Becca will not let her forget. He's also nothing like the arrogant doctors she's used to … and he keeps finding reasons to be wherever she is. So Sasha does something genuinely reckless for once. She decides the rule might be worth breaking. She walks into work ready to tell him … and finds out he has a fiancée. A wedding website. And a wedding date four months away. Cal tries to explain, but the truth is even messier than the story Sasha built in her head. And a long way from finished. Some lessons you learn the easy way. This isn't going to be one of them.

Even when you know better, sometimes it's simply too tempting… Becca Dillon has three interests: gossip, fun, and men. Not in that order, and not one at a time. Years as a medical assistant in Rutherford's cardiac unit have taught her exactly how to end a dry spell without anybody catching feelings. So when the new orderly turns out to be all leather, tattoos, and maddening silence, Becca figures she knows precisely what this is. She's wrong about most of it. Vincent DeMarco isn't playing hard to get. He's on parole for grand larceny, so he's focusing on the job his parole officer found for him and has a list of rules he can't afford to break. He also disappears every Wednesday, and the story he tells about where he goes doesn't hold up. Becca has never once in her life been able to leave a mystery alone. So she's going to find out what he's hiding. And then she's going to have to decide whether she still wants the simple, no-strings fun she came for — or the complicated, terrifying, worth-it mess of the man she's actually falling for. Bad boys don't make good boyfriends. Everyone knows that. Becca's about to find out what happens when one turns out to be so much more.

Three couples. One hospital. Not a single rule that survives. Rutherford Hospital's cardiac unit runs on caffeine, gossip, and people who care far too much. Sasha, Becca, and Jules have worked side by side for years — and over one very eventful year, all three of them fall spectacularly hard. Never Date a DoctorSasha Suvorin has one rule: never date a doctor. Then Dr. Caleb Thompson transfers in. British. Surgeon. Tall, dark, and unfairly blue-eyed. When he can't seem to stay away from her, she finally decides her rule might be worth breaking. Only to walk into work to find out he has a fiancée. Some lessons you learn the easy way. This isn't going to be one of them. Bad Boys Don't Make Good BoyfriendsBecca is looking for uncomplicated fun. What she gets is an orderly on parole who disappears every Wednesday with a story that doesn't hold up. Becca has never been able to leave a mystery alone. And she's about to find out what happens when a bad boy turns out to be so much more than she bargained for. You Can't Buy LoveFive glasses of wine into her hospital's annual gala, Jules tells a handsome stranger everything wrong with the place she's given sixteen years to. Monday morning, he's standing at the front of the staff meeting and she learns the truth about her one-night-stand: he's the owner's son, sent to restructure the hospital. Now Jules has to decide how much of her pride she's willing to swallow to save the hospital — and whether she can do it without losing her heart in the process. All three novels in the complete Life Lessons series, plus three exclusive bonus epilogues.